Deterministic and electrically tunable bright single-photon source

The scalability of a quantum network based on semiconductor quantum dots lies in the possibility of having an electrical control of the quantum dot state as well as controlling its spontaneous emission. The technological challenge is then to define electrical contacts on photonic microstructures optimally coupled to a single quantum emitter. Here we present a novel photonic structure and a technology allowing the deterministic implementation of electrical control for a quantum dot in a microcavity. The device consists of a micropillar connected to a planar cavity through one-dimensional wires; confined optical modes are evidenced with quality factors as high as 33,000. We develop an advanced in-situ lithography technique and demonstrate the deterministic spatial and spectral coupling of a single quantum dot to the connected pillar cavity. Combining this cavity design and technology with a diode structure, we demonstrate a deterministic and electrically tunable single-photon source with an extraction efficiency of around 53±9%.

[1]  Thaddeus D. Ladd,et al.  Complete quantum control of a single quantum dot spin using ultrafast optical pulses , 2008, Nature.

[2]  D. Ritchie,et al.  An entangled-light-emitting diode , 2010, Nature.

[3]  Christian Schneider,et al.  Electrically driven quantum dot-micropillar single photon source with 34% overall efficiency , 2010 .

[4]  Isabelle Sagnes,et al.  Ultrabright source of entangled photon pairs , 2010, Nature.

[5]  Gilberto Medeiros-Ribeiro,et al.  Charged Excitons in Self-Assembled Semiconductor Quantum Dots , 1997 .

[6]  I. Sagnes,et al.  Bright solid-state sources of indistinguishable single photons , 2013, Nature Communications.

[7]  A Lemaître,et al.  Controlled light-matter coupling for a single quantum dot embedded in a pillar microcavity using far-field optical lithography. , 2008, Physical review letters.

[8]  Jean-Michel Gérard,et al.  Strong Purcell effect for InAs quantum boxes in three-dimensional solid-state microcavities , 1999 .

[9]  Christian Schneider,et al.  Quantum-dot spin–photon entanglement via frequency downconversion to telecom wavelength , 2012, Nature.

[10]  H. Rigneault,et al.  Far-field radiation from quantum boxes located in pillar microcavities. , 2001, Optics letters.

[11]  E. Costard,et al.  Enhanced Spontaneous Emission by Quantum Boxes in a Monolithic Optical Microcavity , 1998 .

[12]  G. Solomon,et al.  Available online at www.sciencedirect.com , 2000 .

[13]  Jian-Wei Pan,et al.  On-demand semiconductor single-photon source with near-unity indistinguishability. , 2012, Nature nanotechnology.

[14]  Jelena Vucković,et al.  Efficient source of single photons: a single quantum dot in a micropost microcavity. , 2002, Physical review letters.

[15]  Ian Farrer,et al.  Two-photon interference of the emission from electrically tunable remote quantum dots , 2010 .

[16]  Technical University of Denmark,et al.  Electrical control of spontaneous emission and strong coupling for a single quantum dot , 2008, 0810.3010.

[17]  W. J. Munro,et al.  Proposed entanglement beam splitter using a quantum-dot spin in a double-sided optical microcavity , 2009, 0910.4549.

[18]  William J. Munro,et al.  Deterministic photon entangler using a charged quantum dot inside a microcavity , 2008 .

[19]  A. Lemaître,et al.  Optical nonlinearity for few-photon pulses on a quantum dot-pillar cavity device. , 2012, Physical review letters.

[20]  E. Waks,et al.  Low-photon-number optical switching with a single quantum dot coupled to a photonic crystal cavity. , 2012, Physical review letters.

[21]  L. Grenouillet,et al.  Electrically driven high-Q quantum dot-micropillar cavities , 2008, 2008 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics and 2008 Conference on Quantum Electronics and Laser Science.

[22]  Cristian Bonato,et al.  CNOT and Bell-state analysis in the weak-coupling cavity QED regime. , 2010, Physical review letters.

[23]  P. Petroff,et al.  A quantum dot single-photon turnstile device. , 2000, Science.

[24]  Christian Schneider,et al.  Microcavity enhanced single photon emission from an electrically driven site-controlled quantum dot , 2012 .

[25]  P. Michler,et al.  Electrically pumped single-photon emission in the visible spectral range up to 80 K. , 2008, Optics express.

[26]  Isabelle Sagnes,et al.  Quantum dot-cavity strong-coupling regime measured through coherent reflection spectroscopy in a very high-Q micropillar , 2010, 1011.1155.

[27]  Peter Michler,et al.  Quantum correlation among photons from a single quantum dot at room temperature , 2000, Nature.

[28]  C. Piermarocchi,et al.  Optical RKKY interaction between charged semiconductor quantum dots. , 2002, Physical Review Letters.

[29]  Dieter Schuh,et al.  Optically programmable electron spin memory using semiconductor quantum dots , 2004, Nature.

[30]  P. Michler,et al.  Influence of the oxide aperture radius on the mode spectra of (Al,Ga)As vertical microcavities with electrically excited InP quantum dots , 2013 .

[31]  E. Togan,et al.  Observation of entanglement between a quantum dot spin and a single photon , 2012, Nature.

[32]  Larry A. Coldren,et al.  High-frequency single-photon source with polarization control , 2007 .

[33]  R. M. Stevenson,et al.  Electric-field-induced coherent coupling of the exciton states in a single quantum dot , 2010, 1203.5909.

[34]  Pierre M. Petroff,et al.  Deterministic Coupling of Single Quantum Dots to Single Nanocavity Modes , 2005, Science.

[35]  I. Ial,et al.  Nature Communications , 2010, Nature Cell Biology.

[36]  Evelyn L. Hu,et al.  Strongly correlated photons on a chip , 2011, 1108.3053.

[37]  J. Mørk,et al.  Dielectric GaAs antenna ensuring an efficient broadband coupling between an InAs quantum dot and a Gaussian optical beam. , 2013, Physical review letters.